1Department of Botany, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur-273009, India
2Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India
3Department of Botany, St. Andrew's College, Gorakhpur-273001, India
*Corresponding author e-mail: G.P. Rao (gprao_gor@rediffmail.com)
Online published on 21 January, 2014.
Little leaf symptoms were observed on Ranunculus sceleratus at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India and collected samples resulted positive using PCR assays with phytoplasma universal primers P1/P7 followed by nested PCR with R16F2n/R16R2 primers. Selected nested PCR amplified products were cloned and sequenced. Sequence comparison revealed 99% identity with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis’. Phylogenetic analysis and computer-simulated RFLP patterns further confirmed that the phytoplasmas associated with little leaf disease of R. sceleratus are related to ‘Ca. P. cynodontis’ and belong to 16SrXIV-A subgroup. This is the first report of 16SrXIV-A phytoplasma association with little leaf disease of R. sceleratus in the world.
Ranunculus sp, little leaf, phytoplasma
